Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Rangers Focused On Bolstering Blueline, Not Sundin

Lyle "Spector" Richardson at The Hockey News has this little nugget on the Rangers current interest in Mats Sundin...

" The New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers were also linked to Sundin, but like the Habs they lack the cap space to sign him. Both clubs are now believed to be focused on bolstering their respective bluelines."

...not sure why the Rangers would looking to bolster their blueline. They've been great so far this year (sans a Kalinin giveaway every now and then), plus they have depth down in Hartford with Potter and Fahey.

...although it is great to hear that the Rangers will most likely not be pursuing Sundin.

5 comments:

How would adding Shanahan be a better move than signing Sundin? Last season, playing primarily with Scott Gomez, Shanahan only managed to tally 23 goals and 23 assists, for 46 points, and looked like he had concrete in his skates, whereas Mats Sundin, playing with top line wanna-be's such as Antropov and Ponikarovsky, scored 32 goals and had 46 assists, for 78 points. Oh and Sundin is 2 years younger.

So the question is, would you rather sign a guy who is quite possibly the most consistent scorer ever, in terms of never getting injured and always being around the 75-80 point mark for 15 straight seasons? Or would you instead want a guy who's production has declined 25% each year over the last three, from 81, to 62, to just 46 last season, and who slows down almost everyone on the team not named Colton Orr?

If Sundin were to put winning in front of salary, and sign at midseason for $1-1.5 mil (assuming another minor cap saving move is made), that might make us the favorite for the entire league, even over the Red Wings, since Lundqvist > Osgood.

Now, that is fine if you still want to be stubborn and not face reality "anonymous", but to say that Mats Sundin is overrated is quite possibly one of the most idiotic comments I have ever come across, and being on the Rangers BB for the last 5 years, I have read some stupid, stupid posts. If anything, Brendan Shanahan, at this point in his career, might be the most overrated player since Jamie Lundmark.

Sundin is very consistent...look at his stats per-year. Save for his rookie season, he's only had three sub 30 goal seasons (and they were like 28, 27, 29 or something)...yeah he hasn't won a cup but it takes a TEAM to win a cup.

Hasn't won anything? Are you kidding me? He won the gold medal in the 2006 olympics with Sweden. Who was their goalie again?